Widely renowned as one of our most prolific genre authors, Stephen King has seen his works adapted for film and television time and time again. But only one of those adaptations features an English teacher traveling back through time to stop JFK’s assassination. Based on King’s 2011 novel, 11/22/63, and adapted for television by J.J. Abrams (The Cloverfield Paradox), the eight-episode limited series 11.22.63 is now streaming on Netflix.
Alongside James Franco (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) and Chris Cooper (American Beauty), the cast includes Sarah Gadon (Alias Grace), Lucy Fry (Night Teeth), Daniel Webber (The Dirt), and George MacKay (I Came By). The series also features Cherry Jones (Black Mirror), T.R. Knight (Grey’s Anatomy), Josh Duhamel (Ransom Canyon), and Annette O’Toole (Virgin River).
It’s 2011, and Jake Epping (Franco) is an empathetic English teacher in the sleepy town of Lisbon Falls, Maine. And the kindness he receives from locals like diner owner Al Templeton (Chris Cooper) keeps him going as he struggles through a divorce. But one day at the diner, Al emerges from the back coughing up blood. When Jake tries to help, Al brushes him off — instead insisting Jake climb through a closet in the diner, stay as long as he needs, then come back. Despite Jake’s confusion at Al’s demand, he proceeds to climb through the closet … only to emerge, on the other side, in the year 1960. Shocked by what he’s seeing, Jake sprints back through the closet to the present, where Al finally reveals his secret:
Since discovering the portal, Al’s been using it to try and stop the assassination of JFK. Convinced that this is the only way to save thousands — including his own loved ones — from dying in Lyndon B. Johnson’s escalation of the Vietnam War, Al begs Jake to take up his mission. And the coughing? Al was diagnosed with cancer while in the ’60s and has returned to the present for treatment. Sadly, he expects he’ll die before he can make a better world.
Shocked by Al’s request, Jake says he’s not going to waste his life trying to change the past. But when Jake returns the next morning filled with regret over the conversation, he finds Al dead. So Jake decides to take on the mission in the hopes that, when he succeeds, he’ll return to the present to find Al alive: After all, he wants to be able to apologize properly. But once in the past, Jake discovers that the undertaking is more perilous than Al let on. After all, when you mess with time, it’ll mess with you back.
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